Selecting objects - AutoCAD Tutorial

- [Instructor] We're starting a new chapter now and we're going to take a look at all of the commands that you can use in AutoCAD to modify objects. So, we'll be spending a lot of time in the modify panel on the home tab on the ribbon. In order to do this, we've got a new drawing for you. It will look familiar, but it's called modifying objects.dwg. And you can download it from the library to follow along with the videos in the chapter. And you can see the drawing on the screen, you should see a floor plan with the grids and the dimensions like so it should look remarkably familiar to you anyway due to previous chapters in this course, and you should be in the model tab in the bottom left corner. Now we're going to look at selecting objects first because in order to modify objects, you need to be able to select them. Now you'll remember in previous chapters and videos we set up some points and points styles in this area of the drawing here. We're going to zoom in on that area like so. So when I zoom in, you'll see those points get bigger and bigger. There's the points there, there's objects here I'll just hit Esc to de-select that one. Now you'll remember we set up a point style that was 5% of the relative screen size. Now they look big there and of course they would. Now what we need to do is we need to refresh the view. Now to do that, you can use the region command, which is R-E-G-E-N, just type it like so and see it come up on the suggestion menu. When I press Enter, keep an eye on those points and you'll see they go back down to 5% of the screen size. So they're always 5%. You can also save the drawing that will automatically regenerate the drawing as well. Now we're going to take a look at how we select objects in our AutoCAD drawings. Now the quickest and easiest way is to move the cross out over an object that line there, you can see it highlights. If I get the pit box over the line and left click, that will select that line. And you can see it selected, it goes a pale blue color and the grips that are relative to that line's geometry are there as well. So a line has three grips. It has one at each end and one on its midpoint as you can see. Now, to de-select anything you've selected, you just hit Esc. I always hit it twice. And the reason being the first one will de-select the object, the second Esc will actually cancel any command you may have open. So I always hit Esc twice to de-select. Just to be on the safe side in case I'm in the middle of a command and I might do something random elsewhere by mistake. So, let's have a look at selecting. I'm going to show you some selection methods. Now, one of these is known as the windows selection. So I'm going to put my crosshair here. I'm not actually on or over any objects but I'm going to click. And as I drag now can see any object inside the boundaries of that blue window highlights saying, see there one of my points as highlighted. As I go along there's the second one and the third one and that line you can see there has also been highlighted for selection. And as I come this way, you can see some other lines as well have highlighted for selection. So when I left click over here, you'll see the objects that work within that particular window have been selected. Now, if I only wanted the points selected how do I remove those line objects? Well, first of all, I might zoom in a little bit. So let's position myself over here and zoom in. Now, when you hover over the grips be aware that you do get the option to work with the grips. You need to move away slightly and then roll up on the male slide that. Now I'm going to just do a little bit of zooming and panning like that. And all I'm going to do now is hold down the Shift key and put the pick box over the line and click and can you see, they get de-selected as I click on them. So holding down the Shift key and selecting an object removes it from the selection set. So I'm going to come down here there's that line there, so I hold down Shift, see the little minus symbol on the cross here, when I click, that removes it from the selection set. And when I zoom out slightly using the wheel on the mouse you can see that I've only got those four points selected. I'm just going to scan for a couple of times now to de-select them and cancel any command. Now, what happens if I do a selection the other way? That's known as a crossing window selection. So if I get in a space up here where I'm not highlighting any objects, click once and drag the other way. Can you see how many objects are getting selected? Loads of them. That's because of crossing selection going from right to left will actually select not only the objects within the window boundary, but any objects that are crossed by the window boundary. So if I now left click again, lots of objects selected probably not worth my while holding down Shift and clicking on each one to de-select it. So what I'll do there just hit Esc a couple of times to de-select everything. So they're the two main methods that you would probably use to select objects in AutoCAD. The other one being obviously individual objects like I showed you at the beginning, where you just click on each object. Now, one of the benefits you have with AutoCAD is as you keep clicking, it just keeps adding to the selection set. Now, if that doesn't happen in your AutoCAD and when you click on one object and then go and click on another object, only the object that you've just clicked on is selected. There's a setting in AutoCAD that you need to be aware of. Let me just hit Esc a couple of times to make sure we've got no commands or objects selected. If you right click and go down to Options like we did in one of the previous chapters, and you need to go to the Selection tab up here in the dialog box, and you've got some settings here. So you've got what is called noun verb selection which we'll cover later but it's this one here, use Shift to add to selection. If I tick that now and I okay it, watch what happens. I select that line there, select that point there. Can you see it jumps from object to object and I've now got to hold down Shift like I would, if I was deselecting. Can you see? So in order to add, I've got to hold down Shift all the time to add those objects to my selection set. Now for me, I find that a bit tiresome. So I'm going to hit Esc a couple of times, right click and go back to options again and just switch that off in the selection tab in the Option style of box. So that's use Shift to add to selection. So I'll apply that now and just okay it. And now when I click on each object, can you see it's just adding them cumulatively to the selection set, like so. So that's how I like to work, it's entirely up to you. So now, you know some methods to select objects when you're working and modifying objects in your AutoCAD drawings. You have the individual selection, like so, I'll just hit Esc a couple of times, you have the window selection, like so and you have the crossing selection where everything crossed and what's in the window gets selected like that. Hit Esc a couple of times there just to obviously de-select and cancel any commands. And what we'll do now, as we work through this chapter is we'll go through all the different modified commands available to you in AutoCAD but also we'll show you some neat little tricks there about how to select those objects for each of the specific commands as well.